The present invention relates to tracked vehicles and, in particular, to a shape changing track assembly for supporting a vehicle and morphing between a non-circular and a circular track shape to accommodate differing types of terrain.
A wide variety of personal and commercial all terrain vehicles have been developed for travel over terrains including wooded, rocky and sand terrain, streams, muddy fields etc. Track assemblies have also been developed for converting wheeled vehicles to track vehicles with the replacement of the wheels with track assemblies. The latter vehicles typically support at least one pair of track assemblies from a chassis mounted suspension at power driven and/or passive axles.
The present invention was developed to provide an improved track assembly wherein the geometry of the track assembly can be selectively transformed between a flat-sided configuration (e.g. non-circular or generally triangular) and a circular shape. The track assembly can thus be transformed or morphed to accommodate travel over either off-road terrain or hard packed terrain (i.e. paved or dirt roads). The assembly finds particular application and adaptation in vehicles designed for personnel and/or equipment hauling, trucks and other multi-axle vehicles and specific application equipment (e.g. irrigation, farm field etc.).